In January 2013, Dish made an unsolicited offer to acquire the struggling Clearwire, predominantly as a way to acquire the company’s spectrum, but Clearwire had already agreed to sell itself to Sprint. So Dish instead decided to go whole hog and make an unsolicited bid for Sprint.

"The Dish proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal," Ergen said in a statement. "Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined Dish/Sprint with a significantly enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal."

Sprint said in a statement this morning that it could confirm the bid and that "its Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal carefully and consistent with its fiduciary and legal duties. The company does not plan to comment further until the appropriate time."

It's all about the spectrum

Analysts say that the deal at the end of the day, is about getting a huge spectrum footprint.

"Spectrum is crucial to the transaction, as it has been in the US wireless market recently, as DISH hopes to combine its current holdings with those of Sprint and Clearwire, and create a carrier whose spectrum depth of 230MHz will dwarf its rivals in the market," wrote Dexter Thillien, an IHS Global Insight analyst, in an investor's note on Monday.

"The pay-TV company owns 45MHz of frequencies, split between 40MHz in the satellite 2GHz band and 5MHz in the unpaired E-block in the 700MHz band, which it acquired during the 2008 auction for $711 million. Coverage requirements means has to cover 35 percent of the population by mid-June, a condition it is likely to try to amend as part of its deal for Sprint. This would give the company spectrum in low, medium and high frequencies, with the 700MHz spectrum of special interest to DISH for differentiation, as it sees three segments with strong growth potential."

Similarly, Chris Silva, an analyst with the Altimeter Group, noted that a bundling of satellite and wireless could turn Dish and Sprint into the country's first "quadruple play" firm, offering TV, VoIP, Internet and mobile services.

"Any deal that puts Sprint in a financial position to innovate and provide viable competition to the other players in the US wireless market is a good thing for Sprint shareholders and for the market," he said. "With Verizon and AT&T essentially defining wireless product set and go to market norms, a scrappy number three in the market could force change."

Also on Monday morning, Verizon offered $1.5 billion to buy spectrum leases from Clearwire, according to regulatory filings reported on by the Wall Street Journal. Clearwire's own filings noted that, without the Sprint deal or additional financing, the situation "may result in the Company being required to seek bankruptcy protection."